(Newser)
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Massey Energy recklessly ignored safety and allowed dangerous conditions to build inside a West Virginia mine until a blast last year killed 29 men in the deadliest US coal accident since 1970, according to an independent report released today. The report by a former top federal mine regulator said Massey could have prevented the April 2010 disaster with standard safety practices, including better ventilation to reduce potentially explosive levels of gas and dust in the tunnels.

"A company that was a towering presence in the Appalachian coalfields operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner, and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk-taking," the study concluded. It supported the federal government's theory that methane gas mixed with huge volumes of explosive coal dust turned a small fireball into a preventable earth-shattering explosion. The report, commissioned by the state's then-governor, is the first of several. State and federal investigators are pursuing their own inquiries, while federal prosecutors conduct a criminal investigation.

But now the CEO is retired and living off his millions earned from dead miners. Instead of letting companies get by with these working conditions they shouldn't allow them to practice delaying them. Fine them and put the money in escrow until settled. Then make the CEO, Safety officer and manager of the mine criminally liable. When they start being in prison the dollar won't look so important.

finkster

May 19, 2011 2:09 PM CDT

You mean rich greedy A##holes..... Who only care about the all mighty buck and would step over their mothers to get at it.....are at fault? NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!